KATIE COURIC - WAS COURIC'S "MEMORY" FAULTY?

WAS COURIC'S "MEMORY" FAULTY?

Although Katie Couric began a recent "Katie Couric's Notebook," which aired on CBS Radio and was posted on the CBSNews website, by remarking, "I still remember when I got my first library card," she was reading the words of a CBS producer who had in fact plagiarized the "Notebook" essay from the Wall Street Journal, the network acknowledged Wednesday. Network spokeswoman Sandy Genelius said that Couric was not aware that the copy had been plagiarized. "She was stunned and very upset," Genelius told Reuters. "It's the same reaction we all had." In today's (Thursday) New York Sun, columnist David Blum commented, "For $15 million a year, wouldn't you think Katie Couric could find the time in her day to reflect on her own feelings ... and not on those of a Wall Street Journal reporter named Jeffrey Zaslow?" Blum further objected to the fact that CBS News had fired the producer without revealing her identity. He rectified that by revealing that her name is Melissa McNamara, who joined the network in October 2005. He further chastised CBS for describing its deletion of the Couric piece as a "correction." "It should have admitted the deception rather than pretend ... that it was a mistake," Blum commented.

12/04/2007